A constitutionalconvention is an informal and uncodified procedural agreement that is followed by the institutions of a state.

Constitutionalconventions differ from formal (Click link for more info and facts about constitutional amendments) constitutional amendments in that they are created over time, and it may be difficult or impossible to identify when a constitutionalconvention has come into effect or sometimes even what the constitutionalconventions are.

Constitutionalconventions are not obligatory, but are in effect procedural agreements which all sides adhere to.

Oliver Ellsworth and Roger Sherman put forward a compromise measure that gradually won approval; this provided for a lower house to be elected according to population (the House of Representatives) and an upper house to be chosen by the states (the Senate).

The convention was in session until Sept. 17, 1787, and the document was then sent to the states for ratification.

The thesis, associated with the name of Charles Austin Beard, that the Constitution was framed solely to further the economic interest of special groups, notably creditors, land speculators, and holders of public securities, has not been generally accepted by historians.

The Convention had not proceeded far when it was discovered that the Articles of Confederation were too radically defective to afford a basis for a stable government, and therefore, instead of trying to amend them, they went diligently at work to form a new constitution.

The Convention ordered their proceedings to be laid before the Congress, and by a carefully-worded resolution recommended that body to submit the new Constitution to the people (not the States), and ask them, the source of all sovereignty, to ratify or reject it.

It was violently assailed in these conventions and through the medium of the press, by those who regarded allegiance to a State as paramount to that to the national government; while powerful essays in its favor were written by Hamilton, Madison and Jay, under the title of The Federalist.

Though the United States existed prior to the ratification of the Constitution, it was a nation held together by the tenuous threads of the Articles of Confederation, a sometimes contentious, and often ineffectual national government.

However, in the struggle for ratification, Hamilton became a champion of the new Constitution, and was one of the main contributors to the Federalist Papers.

With the signing of the Constitution by the Convention's President, the eminent George Washington, and the signatures of each of the attending states, the journey began.

Focusing on who was present at the constitutionalconventions of the 1890s highlights that the 'process of designing Australia's political institutions was exclusively male'.(2) Catherine Helen Spence stood for election as a convention delegate in South Australia but was not successful.

Nonetheless, outside the conventions the extent of women's political activity around federation was significant, given the traditional view that a woman's role did not include voicing her political opinions in public.

The aim of the 1998 People's Convention is to 'give the Australian people their proper voice' in the discussion of Australia's constitutional future.(9) In addition to representation by appointed and elected women delegates (although not 50 per cent), Australian women have mobilised to ensure an increased voice for themselves through the WCC.

The English ConstitutionalConvention (ECC) is a growing coalition of political and non-political organisations who believe that the people of England have a democratic right to participate in, and decide upon, the form of devolution that best suits the needs, sensibilities and majority will of the people living within England.

It is clear that, if the political system is to retain credibility with the people of England, then the voice of her people must be heard and a proper democratic debate around England's future and her nationhood be properly constituted and supported by all those who seek to govern in her name.

The purpose of the English ConstitutionConvention is to promote the debating and the making of proposals for a consequentially appropriate, just and fair, constitutional settlement for all the people of England, and which protect their principles of justice and liberty.

Robert Morris of Pennsylvania, the "financier" of the Revolution, opened the proceedings with a nomination--Gen. George Washington for the presidency of the ConstitutionalConvention.

The convention had its specific origins in a proposal offered by Madison and John Tyler in the Virginia assembly that the Continental Congress be given power to regulate commerce throughout the Confederation.

The convention approved a resolution establishing population as the basis for representation in the House of Representatives, thus favoring the larger states.

Constitution of Medina (Dustur al-Madinah), Mohammed (622)  Constitution of government which united Muslims, Jews, Christians and pagans, in the city-state of Medina, perhaps the first written constitution.

A Defense of the Constitutions of Government of the United States of America, John Adams (1787-89)  Comprehensive historical review of how various national constitutions worked, with quotes from political philosophers and historians, that influenced the Founders in their drafting of state and federal constitutions.

The American Republic: its Constitution, Tendencies, and Destiny, O. Brownson (1866)  Argument against secession, distinguishes the constitution of government from the underlying constitution of the society, and territorial from socialistic or egoistic democracy.

George Washington wrote of the period between the Treaty of Paris and the writing of the Constitution that the states were united only by a "rope of sand."Disputes between Maryland and Virginia over navigation on the Potomac River led to a conference of representatives of five states at Annapolis, Maryland, in 1786.

Absent from the Convention were Thomas Jefferson, who was serving in France as minister, and John Adams, serving in the same capacity in Great Britain.

The Convention had been authorized merely to draft amendments to the Articles of Confederation but, as Madison later wrote, the delegates, "with a manly confidence in their country," simply threw the Articles aside and went ahead with the building of a wholly new form of government.

He kept at it, attending every session of the convention (and writing the notes that serve as our only true guide to its inner workings), he spoke more than any other delegate, and he was usually the one who came up with the compromise that broke some of the most entrenched deadlocks.

The exception was Washington, whose presence at the convention was considered crucial to its legitimacy in the public eye.

Jefferson was appalled at what his fellow convention delegates did to his original draft, to the point of denigrating both it and his fellow delegates.

ConstitutionalConvention of 1787, The, was attended by more alumni of Princeton than any other American or British institution.

Five of the college alumni at the convention had attended William and Mary, five Yale,* three Harvard, three Columbia, two the University of Pennsylvania, one Oxford, one Glasgow, and one had studied at three universities in Scotland.

Jonathan Dayton, son of a storekeeper in Elizabethtown, had served with distinction in the Revolution, and, at twenty-six, was the convention's youngest delegate.

The ConstitutionalConvention held in 1787 approved the Constitution of the United States of America.

The ratification of the Conventions of Nine States shall be sufficient for the establishment of this constitution, between the States so ratifying the same.

Done in Convention, by the unanimous consent of the States present, the seventeenth day of September, in the year of our Lord one thousand seven hundred and eighty-seven, and of the Independence of the United States of America the twelfth.

The number of delegates was to be equal to the number of members in the Texas House of Representatives, and no person excluded from President Andrew Johnson's general amnesty proclamation was eligible as a delegate unless pardoned by the president.

With greater unanimity than on most questions, the members agreed that neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for a crime, should exist in Texas and that freedmen should be protected in their rights of person and property.

The fourth question that the convention had been specifically enjoined to consider, that of repudiating the war debt, was disposed of with relatively little friction.

Referendum on constitutional convention--qualifications of delegates --selection of nominees for district delegates and delegates-at-large --election procedure.

At the election the electors of the state shall elect fifteen delegates-at-large and the electors of each state senatorial district shall elect two delegates.

All such candidates shall be voted for on a separate ballot without party designation, and the fifteen receiving the highest number of votes shall be elected.

www.moga.state.mo.us /const/A12003a.HTM (109 words)

Web Quest for the U(Site not responding. Last check: 2007-10-22)

The Federal Convention convened in…1787, to revise the Articles of Confederation…Through discussion and debate it became clear…that, rather than amend the existing Articles, the Convention would draft an entirely new frame of government…in closed sessions, the delegates debated, and redrafted the articles of the new Constitution.

You are one of the 55 delegates selected to represent your state at the ConstitutionalConvention.

You are a public relations person hired by the delegates who wish to convince other delegates to approve the new constitution or to convince the population of the states to encourage their delegates to support adoption for ratification.

Constitutional Convention on Encyclopedia.com(Site not responding. Last check: 2007-10-22)

ConstitutionalConvention needs to allow for discussion, input from tribal members

Constitutionalconvention marks golden anniversary of the UAW.

Sherman's great compromise: Roger Sherman's brilliant proposal saved the 1787 ConstitutionalConvention from a hopeless deadlock and safeguarded against centralization of power at the federal level.(History--Greatness...